Name
James Plested
1890
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
31/07/1917
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
266447
Hertfordshire Regiment
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
YPRES (MENIN GATE) MEMORIAL
Panel 54 and 56.
Belgium
Headstone Inscription
N/A
UK & Other Memorials
Hertfordshire Regimental Memorial, All Saints Church, Hertford
Pre War
James Plested was born in 1890 in Harrow Weald nr Bushey, Herts, the son of James and Annie Plested and one of eight children.
On the 1891 Census the family were living at the cottages in Harrow Weald, where his father was working as a stockman on a farm and his mother was working as a laundress. They remained in Harrow Weald in 1901 but his father died a few months later and on the 1911 Census he was living with his widowed mother and four siblings at 2 Graham Road, Wealdstone, Middx. James was then working as a gardener domestic.
He married Muriel Daisy Stayton on 28 September 1912 at Wealdstone Parish Church, Middlesex and they had two children, James Hubert (born 1913) and Bramwell Malcolm (born 1914). They were then living at 74 Roxeth Hill, Harrow and James was working as a gardener. He gave his address on enlistment as 78 Apsley End, Hemel Hempstead. They also lived at 32 Avenue Rise, Bushey.
Wartime Service
He enlisted in Hertford and joined the Hertfordshire Regiment serving as Private 4628, later changed to 266447. He was embodied on 1 February 1915 but was admitted to Tring Military Hospital on 20 October 1915 suffering from scabies, being discharged on 4 November 1915. He left from Folkestone on 10 December 1916, arriving in Boulogne later the same day, and joined battalion in the field on 14 December 1916.
James was killed in action in Belgium on 31 July 1917 during the Third Battle of Ypres and the attack at St Julien, an operation which was devastating for the Regiment and has been described as the 'Hertfordshires Darkest Day.' He is one of 121 men from the Hertfordshire Regiment named on the Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial, Belgium who have no known grave.
Additional Information
His widow, Muriel, received a war gratuity of £11 and pay owing of £1 0s 10d. She also received a pension of £1 3s 11d a week for herself and her two children. She later gave her address in 1917 as c/o Miss Rogers, Malting Yard, Dagnall, Nr Berkhamsted and 19 Cecil Road, Wealdstone, Middlesex the following year.
Muriel remarried in April 1926 to Jeffrey Gadsden at Emmanuel Church, Northwood and lived at 23 Chester Road, Northwood, Middlesex.
Acknowledgments
Brenda Palmer
Jonty Wild
